Burt Flickinger, III, an industry expert and Managing Director of Strategic Resource Group, says families who spent between $85 and $90 a week on groceries back in 2011 can expected to spend about $100 this year.

Floods and droughts around the world are causing costs of grains, fruits and vegetables to spike, but across the board- it's rising fuel costs that are really having an impact.

"The cost of trucking the product to the factories, to the food warehouses, the food stores is significantly higher, the highest its ever been during this time of year," said Flickinger.

In the coming weeks, expect to pay about $.15 to $.20 a pound more for red meat. Cereal and other grain-based foods are going up,as are soybeans, cooking oils, sugar, and orange juice.

"The profit margins for Tops and Wegmans are as thin and thinner than they've ever been," said Flickinger.

He says while manufacturers tend to waste no time raising prices, they are slow to drop them.

One way to save is stocking up on items at the beginning of the month.

"That's when the prices, the promotional prices are the lowest," said Flickinger. "There are more items on sale and there are either more coupons either online or in the sunday papers.

In all this bad news, there are a few things to be happy about. The first is that Western New Yorkers spend between $500 and $1,000 less for every $5,000 of groceries compared to shoppers on the west coast and in cities like New York and Chicago.

The other good news is that while food prices are on the rise, the price of cotton has gone down.